Andy Tucker, who retired from the Royal Air Force as a Wing Commander after a 32-year career, has spearheaded the parish council initiative for the memorial on the village green in Bradfield Combust.

It will honour four men the village lost during the First World War, and four in the Second.

Mr Tucker, a councillor on Bradfield Combust with Stanningfield Parish Council, said the families of Private Gault, Second Lieutenant Makin, Pte Middleditch and brothers Sergeant Derrick Savoy and Sgt Gerald Savoy had now been tracked down.

Clive Boughton, 59, from Thurston, and who is a nephew of the Savoy brothers who both died at the age of 21, learned of the war memorial project by reading an article in the Mercury, the Eadt’s sister paper. He will be attending the unveiling ceremony on August 2 along with other members of his family, and the families of three of the other men.

He described the memorial project as “absolutely fantastic”. “I think it’s great,” he said.

Mr Tucker said according to forces’ war records Derrick Savoy, who served with RAF Squadron No. 106, was killed when his Lancaster bomber crashed at Grünwald in Germany. His brother Gerald had been a flight engineer.

Mr Tucker said he was “over the moon” with the success of memorial scheme.

The war memorial in Stanningfield will also be cleaned as part of the parish council project, and enough funds have been raised for a donation of £1,700 to the Royal British Legion’s poppy appeal.